Due to pressures of work and family we haven't been gaming as often as we would like. When we do, it's been alternating between WWII in Burma using Bolt Action, and Napoleonics using Black Powder.

Recently the planets lined up, with four of us available for a game. We decided it would be a good opportunity to once again try and chastise the great Thief of Europe .

With 28mm miniatures on my 6'x4' table. We found that using the BP rules with the scenarios from Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames makes for ideal games, with no more than six units a side leaving plenty of space for maneuver.

It's a stubborn myth that Black Powder- or just Napoleonics in general- only works with large games.

We managed to get two scenarios in on one day last Sunday- one a very abstracted and scaled-down battle of Wavre, the other based on Langensalza, 1866. Both were challenging and fun- a great success.

The table looked good, dice were fickle, and the scenarios themselves proved tense. And I got to use one of my resin buildings that hadn't seen the light of day since I gamed in Vancouver some good few years ago now.

Really fun day. Really need to get working on my Prussians, though.

"So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable."-Aldous Huxley

I gamed with a number of groups, mostly informal gatherings. I started off with the Trumpeters wa-a-ay back when I got started, but later spent most of my gaming with Dave Smith & Co. on the late '80s and early '90s as part of what are now the North Shore gamers. I still get in a game or two with them whenever I go back on one of my (irregular) visits.

My Prussians are a mix of the usual suspects; Perry, Warlord, some Calpe and recently the juicy new Front Rank releases. The plan is Tippelskirch's 5th Brigade, 1815.

"So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable."-Aldous Huxley

Interesting, I have painted up all of Von Bulow's Corp for 1815 plus some extra units for the 1st corp.The WRG team up with Dave, Steve Knight, Bruce Harborne and a few other NS guys on occasion. Usually big games, such as Wagram, Borodino, Eylau, Waterloo and Ligny. Two weekends ago we went down to Enfilade the NWHMGS convention in Olympia Washington. All the NS guys were there, we had a great time.

As an evangelistic DBN convert, I had long realised you don't have to 'go large' to get a Napoleonic battle that ticks all the boxes.Weirdly, though - seeing those Port skirmishers reminded me of ex-WDer 'Cacadores'!

Listen, I have virtually no control over the random-associations my brain-jelly comes up with.He was an amiable sort in the flesh, but you'll rarely see a man hoist the banner of contrariness as high or as proudly.